By Andrew DePietro,Contributor,The Latest Census

Copyright forbes

Portland, Maine’s largest city and metro area, is the central hub around which many of the state’s richest cities are located.

A series of recent studies have analyzed and identified the richest cities in a number of New England states, including the wealthiest in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For this article, the analysis has covered the richest cities in Maine. Out of the six states that comprise New England, Maine has the lowest median household income at $71,773.

Read on to find out what the richest city in Maine is, as well as the top 15 wealthiest cities in the state.

What Is the Richest City in Maine?

In order to identify the richest cities in Maine, a couple of datasets were sourced from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (which is the latest five-year estimate data available), including median household income, average household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid. Combing these four metrics together, the study analyzed and compiled a list of the top 15 richest cities in Maine based on a scoring system.

It’s important to bear in mind some key features when it comes to Census data and how it defines cities and measures financial characteristics. For example, the Census Bureau measures median household incomes up to $250,000, with households earning more being designated as “$250,000+”. What’s more, the Census does this with median home value, which goes up to $2 million, with any value above that denoted as “$2,000,000+”. This same style of measurement applies to median property taxes paid by owner-occupied households. The values go up to $10,000 and any amount beyond that is represented as “$10,000+”.

Because of this, mean (average) household income is especially useful in our analysis because, unlike median household income, mean household income has exact values for every city in Maine. All four of these metrics were scored, summed up, and ranked by the cities’ collective scores. It should also be noted that the Census has a unique geographic unit called census-designated place, CDP. These are treated like towns or cities, but these “places” often aren’t officially recognized on the local level as towns. Therefore, if you see a place on this list that you consider a neighborhood or community, it’s because the Census treats it like an independent city. New England states also have their own twist in Census data, having not just a list of laces, but also a separate classification specifically for “towns”, which are defined differently than places.

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Below you’ll find a table displaying the top 15 richest cities in Maine and their respective dollar amounts for each metric:

Based on this four-factor metric of median household income, average household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid, the wealthiest city in Maine is Falmouth Foreside, a CDP just northeast of Falmouth proper. Within the town of Falmouth, Falmouth Foreside has 808 total households. The median household income here is the second highest in the state, at $152,870. The average household income is $250,305. The median home value reported by the Census Bureau is $674,200. According to Zillow, the median home value is even higher, at $871,031. Not surprisingly, the median property taxes paid per household is the highest in the state, at $7,598 per year. Falmouth town proper ranked No. 3 on our list. Its median household income is lower, which isn’t surprising since it includes more people and households, at $137,991. The mean income is $222,734, and the reported median home value in the Census is $668,100.

The No. 2 richest place in Maine is the town of Cumberland in Cumberland County. Cumberland is right next to Falmouth to the north. It runs from the coast in the east to Forest Lake in the west. Cumberland is much bigger than the No. 1 city, with over 8,000 people and 3,000 households. Cumberland has the highest median household income in Maine, at $154,375. Its average household income is less than Falmouth Foreside, $232,763 versus $250,305. More than a third of households here earn $200,000 or more. The Census-reported median home value is $554,100, but Zillow’s figure is $724,965. The median property taxes paid per household is just shy of $7,000 a year.

The No. 4 richest place in Maine is the town of Cape Elizabeth, which is in the vicinity other the above cities, just south of South Portland. The median home value in Cape Elizabeth is rather higher, at $859,484, according to Zillow. Cape Elizabeth is larger than Cumberland and smaller than Falmouth, having 3,787 total households. Just under 70% of households in Cape Elizabeth earn $100,000 or more per year, with the median income being $145,107. The average household income is $200,471. Property taxes here also cost more than $7,000 a year on a household basis.

The No. 5 richest place in Maine is Cousins Island, a CDP just off the coast southeast of Yarmouth. There’s one road into Cousins Island, which goes across the Elis C Snodgrass Memorial Bridge. There are some very fine, large houses on the island, with amazing seaside views. There are only 198 households, which makes sense for an island of its size. The median home value reported by the Census Bureau is $634,100. The median household income there is $121,250, while the average household income is just below $200,000. Property taxes, again, come in at over $7,000 per year. The top industries by employment are Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (32% of the workforce), Health Care & Social Assistance (17.7% of the workforce), and Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing & Hunting (12.6% of the workforce), according to Data USA.

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